It's Time For The Rangers To Load Up The Big Guns

Bruce Bennett. Getty Images.

January was supposed to be a relatively easy month schedule-wise. Of course no contests are a given, but in terms of their division teams like the Isles, Devils, Sabres and Pens would fall among the mid-to-low tier. It was a good opportunity for the Rangers to get off to a solid start before having to battle the elite. Well, now that they've stunningly blown a third period lead for the 4th time in their last 5 games & wrapped up the month in the cellar with a 2-4-2 record, you gotta wonder how the young Blueshirts are gonna survive February. After opening the month hosting a Penguins squad they simply can't close out, ten of their next twelve tilts are against the B's, Caps or Flyers. Yikes.

With the obvious exception of Lafreniere's OT winner, where's the clutch scoring? In their four blown third period leads they've been outscored 5-0 in the final 20 of regulation. Not a single third period goal in those games? A league-worst TWO third period goals overall? Mika, where you at? Hello power play? While the Rangers are still a work-in-progress defensively, they've played well enough most games to pull out a win if their offensive leaders could cash in when it mattered most. Contributions have come from all over the lineup - whether it's Laf's first NHL goal, no-names like DiGuiseppe & Blackwell or blueliners Miller & Fox - yet the big guns have been unable to take advantage and put opponents away.

No one's carrying that burden more than Mika Zibanejad. Maybe he's not 100% between battling Covid right before the season began & wiping out hard against the boards a couple weeks ago, but Quinn has gotta wake him up somehow. The best way to do that? Feed him some Bread. Flank Mika with Panarin & slide Lafreniere over (sorry kiddo, it's an emergency). I mean we haven't seen much of that Strome/Panarin magic anyway so the whole "two scoring lines" reasoning of separating #10 & #93 can go kick rocks. Put Kreider & Buch around Strome and see what they can do together. Quinn's been searching for consistency in his lines with all sorts of combinations - it's time to try pairing his two highest-skilled forwards.

I know it sounds silly to say just 8 games into the season, albeit a short one, but it's very close to code red already. Record aside, there's nothing going the Rangers way. They're about to dive into a brutal part of their schedule. The division is handing out charity OT points to each other like candy, making it harder to close gaps in the standings. The squad currently sitting in that final playoff slot five points ahead is there thanks solely due to the Blueshirts inability to finish them off in three tries. Special teams are a disaster and their goaltending tandem expected to be a strength has instead performed among the bottom of the barrel. If this group is gonna right the ship, it's gotta happen immediately and they can't do it without Zibanejad. If 20+ minutes a night wheeling alongside the Breadman doesn't spark him? Well then I guess we're counting down the days to another rigged draft lottery.